Use of flash storage devices has been rapidly increasing over the years because they are portable and they have small physical size and large storage capacity. Flash storage devices that contain preloaded content (e.g., music files, video files) are readily available at retail stores. Preloaded content can be a package of files (e.g., music album) or individual files, and can be purchased on a ‘cost per file’ basis, ‘cost per album’ basis, etc.
A person may buy or receive a storage device with preloaded content, or download content to that storage device. A person may consume the preloaded content fully or partly, and the consumption may depend on taste or other considerations. A person may change his minds about consuming content s/he downloaded or simply dislike certain preloaded content. If unconsumed content was obtained for free, the person can delete it and download another content which the person likes. However, if the unconsumed content was not free, the person may want to get credit for it and use the credit to replace the content with other payable content, say, under an agreed upon files' return policy. Hence, there is a need for a mechanism that accommodates such a policy.